To What Extent Should We Place Trust in the Government These Days?
To what extent should we place trust in the government these days?
It is said by American President Barack Obama, ''If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.'' From here, we know the importance of people putting trust in their government. However, we can only place trust in them if they are able to take care of their citizens, fulfilling their needs and acting responsibly in the best interest of the citizens. Recently, there seem to be an increase in reasons for us to distrust our government for they are fulfilling less of their duties as the leaders of the nation.
Firstly, we should remain skeptical about the government due to the simple fact that the government comprises of humans, and as we all know, no human is perfect. As Gandhi said, ''Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.'' With scientific research stating that the humans are born to be greedy, the innate greed in the government officials might be a dangerous trait. For the government, their greed would result in various forms of corruption such as bribery and extortion, negatively impacting the lives of the citizens. For example in sub-Saharan African nations, about half of the funds that were donated for health usages were never invested into the health sectors. Instead they were lavished to support the costly high-end lives of the government officials. This problem is not only limited to the developing countries. World wide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually. Due to the innate greed in human nature, it is evident that many times, the government will not do what is best for the people. Instead, they would think of themselves first, thus we should not place our complete trust in the government.
Secondly, governments are no longer taking care of the needs of the citizens as well as they did. There are basic
It is said by American President Barack Obama, ''If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.'' From here, we know the importance of people putting trust in their government. However, we can only place trust in them if they are able to take care of their citizens, fulfilling their needs and acting responsibly in the best interest of the citizens. Recently, there seem to be an increase in reasons for us to distrust our government for they are fulfilling less of their duties as the leaders of the nation.
Firstly, we should remain skeptical about the government due to the simple fact that the government comprises of humans, and as we all know, no human is perfect. As Gandhi said, ''Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.'' With scientific research stating that the humans are born to be greedy, the innate greed in the government officials might be a dangerous trait. For the government, their greed would result in various forms of corruption such as bribery and extortion, negatively impacting the lives of the citizens. For example in sub-Saharan African nations, about half of the funds that were donated for health usages were never invested into the health sectors. Instead they were lavished to support the costly high-end lives of the government officials. This problem is not only limited to the developing countries. World wide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually. Due to the innate greed in human nature, it is evident that many times, the government will not do what is best for the people. Instead, they would think of themselves first, thus we should not place our complete trust in the government.
Secondly, governments are no longer taking care of the needs of the citizens as well as they did. There are basic